Great, I love discussing this issue with you. It's like the cavernous pit that Kirk's security man falls into....There's no hope of resolving this question, Captain, it's bottomless...

There's no need to get snide with biting sarcasm.

The point I'm trying to make is that if there's a program so sophisticated as to fully convince a highly qualified sentient individual that a given being is indeed sentient, then it is. The sophistication required is intrinsically the function of sentience.

So yes... sentience can be put on an assembly line. Human beings have done that by simply procreating a biological manifestation.